Jewish and Muslim communities celebrate landmark autopsy ruling

A funeral in Stamford Hill. Photograph:Efrayim Goldstein

Hackney’s Jewish and Muslim communities are celebrating after a high court judge backed their religious right to refuse invasive autopsies.

A judicial review was brought by the family of an Orthodox Jewish woman who resisted an order by Inner London Coroner Mary Hassell for an invasive autopsy to determine the cause of her death last year.

The hearing established a set of principles coroners must follow where families have expressed religious objections to full post-mortems.

Families will now be able to insist on non-invasive CT scans or blood tests in order to ascertain the cause of death, the first time the court has established these principles in law.

Accroding to the Jewish Chronicle, the judge Mr Justice Mitting said Mrs Hassell’s decision had been “flawed and open to being quashed on judicial review grounds”.

The coroner had explained she worked under pressure, handling 20 deaths a day on average.

It was “unreasonable to expect perfection in decision-making by a coroner in these circumstances,” the judge said. What could be expected was “a correct legal approach”.

Rabbi Asher Gratt, spokesman for the strictly Orthodox Adath Yisroel Burial Society told the Hackney Citizen the ruling was a “tremendous relief”.

“We are very grateful to live in a country that is committed to recognise and respond positively to the wishes of those from religious faiths who regard the invasive procedure of post-mortems as being non-compatible with their religious beliefs.

“With this landmark high court ruling the justice system has shown its compassion and understanding to families during the hardest moments in their lives when they have lost loved ones and hereto faced the imposition of an autopsy.”